Ramblings from a dog-loving entrepreneur

It’s no secret how I feelaboutPhish. After the incredible display of masterful musicianship witnessed in Vegas on Halloween, I thought the band deserved a well-articulated Thank You from the Phish community. So, here we are exalted and shouting a collective Thank You Phish!!!! 🙂

Vegas 2014 was everything we could have asked for. While the MGM venue itself could have been a little more organized, in general, the grounds were welcoming and our triumphant return to Sin City was a resounding success. The Halloween set was absolutely incredible and the way you guys orchestrated that entire shindig was awww-inspiring. It looked like all four of you were truly having a blast together! Still! After all of this time! Again… Thank You!!!

As fans of your music, we are just so lucky. We cannot fucking wait to do it all over again next year!

Now, let’s talk a little bit about your Phish ticketing system. After all of these years, the current system is debilitating for the true fans among us. I’m being serious when I say the old days of filling out envelopes and sending off checks and waiting for our paper tickets was a better system than the spam-rigged, Stubhub/Ticketmaster disaster that currently runs the marketplace. For an innovative band like Phish — a band that has already pioneered countless technologies (HD streaming of shows, app services and catalog access, etc.) — the next big project should be to disrupt the Scalper/Stubhub/Ticketmaster stranglehold. The whole situation is an awful mess that us true fans have to consistently navigate every time we want to simply snag a few tickets, for a few friends and family, to a few Phish shows.

Let’s see if we can change this… Here are some ideas we’ve been tossing around.

First, develop a system called “True Phan Priority”, or something like that.

a) Since you just unveiled a brand new version of your Live Phish iPhone/mobile app — that allows for fans to sign up for a monthly subscription to the entire Phish catalog from 2003 – 2014) — one could venture to guess that those that sign up for that service are true loyal fans.

b) Some of us have been using the same email address for our tickets and accounts since before the first breakup. Seriously. I’m sure your Database administrator can look up the age of our email addresses + the amount of show tickets that we originally purchased. Then, develop an intelligent algorithm that could weight our email addresses or accounts with a point system or some value. Shit, I have genius friends that can even help here, but seeing where you’ve taken streaming lately, I’m sure you guys can figure it out.

c) In essence, simply give us true fans a way to have at least some priority over the current Scalpers/Stubhub/Ticketmaster fiasco. Why are we still having to navigate through either a broken lottery system or a scalping mess? This isn’t fair to do to those of us that enjoy planning ahead of time.

At this point, you guys have been touring for five years straight again. For many of your tours (which are getting shorter and shorter), it’s becoming more common for a very large percentage of the crowd to know each other. We all just want to see Phish and dance together.

You see, the constant stories of how hard it is to simply snag a few tickets is turning people off from even trying to come to shows. It’s turning people off from even trying to get tickets. Which is the part that frustrates me most. When ticket on-sale days come around, and some of my dear friends and family say “What’s the use, the whole system is rigged,” I know something has gone terribly wrong.

In case you guys are currently a little too removed from how it’s going down for us, here’s how it’s working in 2014 for the true fan:

1) Phish announces a tour. Yay!

2) We put in for the lottery (most times it’s as many tickets as possible for as many shows as possible). Thousands and thousands of dollars that we are expected to have just “waiting” in our account to be charged.

3) Most of the time, very few of us get what we originally requested. Since a large portion of the fan base is becoming closer as time goes on (again), it’s harder and harder for the true fans to get in to the shows.

4) Next, we have to navigate a system that is clearly setup for us to lose. There are literally software applications that professional scalpers are using that Phish fans are battling. It’s a huge uphill battle. A win is usually the result of simply getting lucky.

Scalpers are deploying scalping applications that clog up all of the bandwidth that websites — like Ticketmaster, Live Nation and local auditorium websites — preemptively setup to handle the onslaught of traffic, on days where expected high ticket sales will take place. This still does nothing for on-sale times of Phish shows. The systems always crash for us fans. And somehow, no matter what, there are immediately hundreds of General Admission tickets (if there is a GA/floor) and premium seats available on Stubhub right as the shows sell-out.

This raises a lot of red flags to me. It seems like the online ticket sales marketplace is going unregulated and true Phish fans are suffering as a result.

Phish, it’s time to step in and help us.

The lottery does not work anymore and scalpers are winning. Some of your true fans simply cannot get tickets to shows when they become available and that’s affecting the amount of music they get to enjoy. Then, a lot of the time, tickets are either $20 or free right outside the door. This creates a scenario where true fans that may be a bit older these days, have real careers or families, that weren’t able to snag tickets directly when the tickets went on sale, just don’t go to the shows. Only to hear that tickets were readily available outside the venue.

This is what we call a broken system. Again, what you guys have done for all of us continues to reverberate in a powerful way on a daily basis. We have a beautiful new Live Phish mobile app. We can access your entire catalog on demand. We can stream, buffer and play songs. You provide us with glorious HD webcasts to a lot of your shows. You have updated your website. Given us a music/track download manager. Let’s fix this ticketing issue.

Maybe it won’t solve the entire online ticketing marketplace issues we always see… Or maybe it will… Perhaps it will simply alleviate some issues the core fan base has.

Nobody loves Phish more than you. This we know. The band you started, the places Phish has taken us — both in this physical world and beyond — are hard to describe in words. The countless pure moments we have all shared together. The past thirty years have been bigger than any one of us individually. Bigger than you, Fish, Mike or Page.

Phish is a universal energy and we are all a part of it. The way you four came together so many years ago. It’s not an accident or a coincidence. It was meant to be. And we — your phans, your army — are meant to dance for as long as you keep playing that beautiful, indescribable music.

As we all grow older and more mature, the role Phish has played and continues to play in our lives has become a lot more clear and well defined. Phish is a beautiful, pure being that we have all created together. A true release from society’s stifling ways. Phish is an other-worldly launching pad for like-minded people to come together. A place for us to celebrate in the oneness of the universe. A place where we can embrace in each other’s common beliefs. A place where our souls can unite. A place we call home.

A Phish show transcends time and place. A single moment is all it takes for us. One small glimpse into the metaphysical energy that is released when you four walk on stage is all we need. Nothing else brings us such supreme happiness, peace and delight. To some, a Phish show may still just be an excuse to party. But for the real phans — those of us that want to see this train thunder-on well into our golden years — Phish is a beautiful, clean, honest and pure living organism. In an otherwise complicated and dishonest world driven by politics, greed and material possessions, a Phish show is perhaps the pure antithesis of all of that garbage.

So, perhaps we can make an arrangement. Maybe a small little deal.

Twice we have all let each other down. Twice, all of us have let the scene balloon out of control. Certain people (and groups of people) prioritized other things ahead of the music and everyone lost control. The organism got sick and it had to take a break to get healthy. No single person is to blame. And after all these years, for anybody to still be putting the blame on you individually would be pure insanity. This is an attempt to alleviate you from the pressures that (twice now) have caused hairline fractures in Phish’s otherwise rock-solid foundation. This letter is an attempt to put the past behind us and unite old and new phans alike. For all of us to enjoy in this very moment, in these happy and healthy times. And for us all to absorb the positivity being released by the Phish organism in this very moment.

This letter is an attempt to capture that, and for us all to keep this going for as long as possible.

Every year that goes by, I find myself truly wondering if this year’s shows will be the last time I’ll get a chance to see you guys play and share in that magical divinity. It’s a tough mentality to wrestle with given the joy and peace that Phish provides in this warmongering world.

We want to build Phish into our lives, into our careers, into the lives of our children. We all want to grow old together. We cannot imagine a world without the purity that Phish brings us. It’s depressing to even think about.

All of us, in this moment, have a chance to set a course for the future together. Let’s learn from those before us and not make the same mistakes we have made in the past. Let’s learn from the two previous break-ups. Let’s mature together. For we, the phans, and you the band, are really just a reflection of each other. Let’s continue listening to each other. Let’s continue charging through uncharted territory together. Only this time, with a wisdom and appreciation for the living organism we are all responsible for.

Phish breaking up is a dark and lonely place. Let’s stay away from there. Let’s give each other a little nod and remember that we are all in this for the long haul.

Wired: “The Dock Apple should have made in the first place.”John Gruber: “An exquisitely well-crafted, beautiful, useful iPhone dock. I’m in.”New York Times: “…but wow, what a stand.”Gizmodo: “I’m tempted to buy an iPhone just so I can use the Elevation Dock”SlashGear: “Elevation Dock for iPhone blows up on Kickstarter”UberGizmo: “Dock aims to make undocking your iPhone a piece of cake”Jason Fried: “Love the thinking that went into the design!”Marco Arment “Elevation Dock for iPhone raised $75k in 8 hours”Cult of Mac: “…The Most Gorgeous iPhone Dock Ever Made”GigaOM: “A dock becomes a darling of the tech world”Digital Trends: “Great design if you ask us. Why didn’t Apple think of this?”Electronistra: “Upscale, case-friendly home”Uncrate: “…you’re going to want a dock. But not just any dock. The Elevation Dock.”TNW: “The Elevation Dock for iPhone blows away Apple’s crap options”Cool Material “The Elevation Dock is, to put it bluntly, perfect.”Silicon Florist “I… Yeah. I don’t even really know where to begin.”AIGA: “…perfect blend of form and functionality… much like Dyson’s fan.”

I wanted to setup a place to share my thoughts. Twitter doesn’t give me enough “oomph” and I usually ramble about Apple, Google and other tech stuff there. Every once in a while, I try and write down something I’d want my (non-existent) children to hear. Avha.me is where I will (attempt) to save these thoughts.

This is a great PSA about cycling and impatiently running red lights. As a daily cyclist myself, I try and keep the red light shortcuts down to a minimum. But I suppose now every time I think about it, I’ll be reminded of this cute little lego man being obliterated.

I know this man, let’s call him Andre. He is older than me, but not by much. All his life he’s been viewed as a relative genius by the people surrounding him. He’s great with his mind when it comes to inverted and closed off self expression. But it has reached the point where these “talents” mean nothing without a solid foundation.

I am possibly one of the last people around without a Facebook account. Seriously. Next time you’re at a stoplight, look around. Chances are, more than 50% of the people you see have a Facebook account. Don’t believe me? Ask them.

Now, when people find out that I don’t have a facebook account, they often times react with “wow” and “huh?” Sometimes I’ll get a chuckle and a “well, that’s just weird,” but for the most part I let it slide without feeling the need to explain my thoughts.

Aside from Facebook.com being a corporation that when squinting at looks like a small Microsoft replica, the entire thought that under no circumstance do I own my own content makes me cringe. I am not sure most people understand, but EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF CONTENT that you put on Facebook… They own. Every photo, every tag, every image, every word, every comment, every link, every click, every shared anything, every poke, every single thing. But you can just delete your account right? NO! Even when you delete your account… YES! EVEN WHEN YOU DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT !!! They own your content forever. This is makes me far too uncomfortable.

These are personal photos, letters, discussions, comments, that Facebook owns. These are people and system administrators working on the application itself that can, and most likely do browse your information unsolicited. Humans by nature will do things they are not supposed to do. If you put a big fat “don’t click” this in front of someone, they most likely will. And out of those 150+ people working at Facebook, you can be sure at least a few of them have illegally browsed some photos, comments and discussions. The only thing is, in a way… It’s not illegal. As the Consumeristintelligently points out, Facebook’s new Terms of Service agreement ever so slightly states that “even when you delete your account, they still own your content… forever.”

Here is the new Terms of Service agreement: As you can see it looks fine, but there are two important sentences missing from the end of this agreement.

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

And here are the two lines from the end of that paragraph, which happen to be missing now: As expected, they directly explain that you could at one time remove your content… Now, you cannot… Ever.

You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

And, just for good measure, the agreement explicitly states what remains their property… forever.

I have accounts with Twitter, Vimeo, and of course Gmail. I have my contacts inside Adium, and I use my personal blog to express myself online. I will never join Facebook, and the slight moments of insanity when I consider it, the sheer thought of Facebook being able to peer into my life without any control over my digital content makes me realize that eventually this will backfire. Whether it be in a corporate shake-down where Facebook implodes while distributing your content to advertisers for direct targeting, or whether it be because Facebook employees were illegally learning about future employers, employees and competition to get a leg up. How it happens is yet to be determined, but at some point, Facebook’s intentions as a whole will emerge. And they’re not about “connecting to your friends.”

You all may disagree. But I remain firm on the notion that Google needs a logo redesign. I use the site everyday as a homebase from which to navigate the internet, and quite frankly… The logo is stuck in November 2004. Yes, people are extremely sensitive to change, and perhaps the timing isn’t necessarily the best right now. But I still remain hopeful that Google is considering said design changes, or something similar.

As you can see from the comparison below. From a User Interface standpoint, Google’s current logo uses inner shadows, drop shadows and lighting angles that cast harsh radials and edges on the typeface. It’s not very Read More…

Posted in Google, Thank me later at January 18th, 2009. Comments Off on Hey Google, Here’s Your New Logo.

About me

Co-Founder of @OregrownInc. Lucky to share my life with two Aussies and two Cattle Dogs. Phish fanatic, lover of the great outdoors. Living that country life with Chrissy, Nya, Ryu, Jedi, Mesa.